Snowy Range Pass

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I am definitely running behind on the blog, as we
have been home a week already and still have not completed our journal of our
trip to Georgia.I am behind because as soon
as we returned home, we began our role as grandparent care givers to Victoria
and Nico.Our daughter had to return to her second grade classroom,
so we have started watching over our grandkids until Nico is old enough in our
collective minds to start daycare.This
is enjoyable but somewhat tiring duty.It is very clear why young people have children, they have the energy to
keep up with them.

Back to our travels in Georgia.After leaving High Falls State Park, we
entered the Atlanta Speedway grounds and were parked by a very well organized
parking crew directly outside of turn one.We were going to share the activities with around 5000 fellow Good Sam
members .

There was a lot of new model RV's available for
rubbernecking along with a number of used units.There was a large Camping World store (owned
by Good Sam) along with two additional buildings full of vendors selling all the latest
RV gear they hoped we could not do without.

We sat in on several of the seminars with Anneke
particularly enjoying the one by the Food Channel chef Bob BlumerShe even bought one of his books.

We just happened to catch a show by a dog training
group called the K9 Kings flying dog show.It was very interesting and the dogs were indeed well trained.I fear there is no hope for Halley in that
regard.Her only chance is if they had a
category for most spoiled.

The main attraction for us was the
entertainment.The two headliners were
The Beach Boys and Vince Gill.We
enjoyed both shows.On Saturday, the
sunset over the speedway was really wonderful. After sundown, there was a nice
fireworks display viewed from the grandstands.

This was our second Good Sam Rally and we found both
to be well organized and enjoyable.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Our first stop after spending time with family was
High Falls State Park.This was our
planned staging stop for being able to arrive at the Good Sam Rally at the
Atlantic Speedway in Hampton GA for the designated AM arrival on our appointed
day.The park is an easy access of the
interstate and would be a good overnight stop.It has a scenic cascading falls and hiking trails.The river campground is roomy with many of
the spots level and long.

We will certainly stop here again if we need a spot
to spend the night south of Atlanta.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

After leaving the Blairsville area we headed to our
daughters home north of Atlanta for a visit and some quality time with our
grandson Aleister.On the way, we hit
some amazing traffic on back country roads and realized we were in the middle
of the apple production region of Georgia on apple festival weekend.So rather than getting stressed out, we made
a few stops to get in on all the excitement.At one stop there was a large crowd including another Winnie View, so we
knew we must be in the right spot. There were apples everywhere and you could
purchase some in any quantity you had in mind of varieties that I have never
even heard of along with all the ones you will find in the supermarket.We made our apple selections and had our first
ever fried fruit pie.Speaking for
myself, even though it was well made, it will likely be my last.I think I enjoy my fruit better in its
natural state.

Once we arrived at our daughter's home and set up in
the driveway, we quickly all agreed that the first thing we would like to do
was visit the local Prater Mill fall festival.This is nearly an annual event for our daughter's family and would be
our second visit. It is a reasonable large affair at a historic water driven mill
just a short drive from their home. We did the tour of all the craft booths and
found a number of great items, we while we enjoyed looking at them were able to
resist adding them to our collection. Anneke continued her food experiment with
a baked apple pastry and it was a big hit.

We then headed to the old cars , tractors and
assorted other items to see if there was anything here we had to have.Luckily, there was not! Aleister and his dad
did enjoy a quick "train" ride around the premises. Finally, we were
about ready to head home, when we had to pass the Humane Society booths.Aleister's dad spent a lot of time looking
and talking with the helpers and the next thing I knew everyone was looking
over this rather impressive looking Alaskan Husky.He was a very cute dog, but there were some
issues.He was found on the streets just
a short while ago with no know history and he had heart worm disease.He, of course, had been given all his shots
and neutered per society policy.They
also said that "Blue" had been treated for the heart worm.So after much discussion, we were trying to
figure out how we were going to get this large dog in to the cab of a pickup
along with the five of us.Let's just
say it was a tight ride home.Blue
proved to be a good natured dog and did not seem overly alarmed at his change
of circumstances.He quickly settled in
at home as part of the family.

Aleister also had another first this weekend, as he announced
that he wanted to learn to cook and the first thing he wanted to make was a
cherry cake.So with a great deal of
help from his mother, he completed his first project, which I can personally
attest to as being excellent.

Now for the rest of the story. Our daughter decided
that she had better have the dog checked by a Vet first thing Monday.When the Vet examined Blue, he found that the
heart worm was still active and wanted to keep the dog until he could confer with
the Humane Society. Long story short - the Humane Society, at best, mislead
them about the treatment. In fact they lied to them.What they told the Vet was that they could
not afford the heart worm treatment and had simply given him a double dose of
the preventive heart worm pill.After
we left, the family decided to keep the dog and pay to have the expensive and
tricky treatment done.We can only hope
this will have a happy ending.As for
the Humane Society, they have moved way down my list of good guys.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

We have spent the last three days exploring the area
around Blairsville, GA.This a fast
growing resort and residential area in the Blue Ridge Mountains just south of
the North Carolina border.It is a
rugged and beautiful area with lots of things to do.We are staying at a resort designed to be all
owner occupied. Unfortunately, the first operator went broke and I am not sure about
the second. It is a beautiful spot but they have not done much with it.We would not consider buying here with the
current conditions, but is had been a fine place to spend a few days.

Our first outing consisted of a loop trip through
the mountains enjoying the views and getting a feel for the area.Certainly, one of the more unique towns was
Helen.It is made to look like a
Bavarian town with that fun tourist trap feeling.With some imagination you could see yourself
at a Oktoberfest in Germany. When we checked the history of the town, what was
really interesting was; that there is no real German heritage in the town.It seems that in 1968 the town was having
severe financial problems and a local artist, who was stationed in Germany,
came up with the idea of completely redoing the town in the Bavarian
motif.So the whole town was redecorated
to look as it does today to attract tourists and it seems that it was a very
good plan! I thought of Judy when I saw
one of the items for sale in a gift store.

Very near Helen is the Anna Ruby Falls. Unfortunately,
even though it is accessed via a state park, the falls sits in a federal forest
and was closed.

So we opted to tour one of the oldest Georgia State
Parks-Vogel.It consists of a
recreational lake, hiking trails and a campground.We enjoyed a hike around the lake and toured
the campground.The campground is very
tight but has many level sites.If
arriving in a big rig, be prepared for a few squeaky spots.

Today, we paid a second visit to Vogel State Park and
then visited with Karen and Al at their park.We had a great visit with them, and solved all the world problems.We hope to be back in this area in the new
future and may be able to stay at this private owner park.If we time it right, we may even get to use
one of their spots.Once again, I failed
to get any pictures of our visit.This
is getting to be a bad habit.